31 Dec 2012

After lusting for ages over all of the amazing glitter franken-polishes on offer in the US, I decided to take the plunge and place a little Lush Lacquer order on Etsy in time for Christmas. I'm sure you've heard of franken polishes before, but if not it means home-made polishes created by either mixing two different polishes together or adding glitter to a nail polish. Sadly it's not as easy as adding your own glitter to an old clear polish, I've looked into it and you need a special type of glitter and a special type of polishes, so I gave up on that and decided to just buy some!

I ordered some of the Lush Lacquer Christmas themed polishes as well as some of their regular range in mini 5ml sizes and got 8 polishes for around £30 with the postage. Kind of pricey for the size, but they're amazing glitters and not like anything you can normally get in the shops.

Aren't they stunners? Although I cheekily did a swatch of each of these for the blog, I actually gave most of these as Christmas presents to my two besties. They won't be surprised about the sneaky swatching! I kept ho ho holidays and mr bubble for me.

Here's ho ho holidays over a shimmery silver polish - sorry my hands are covered in nail oil here. I wore mr bubble over a pale blue polish but stupidly forgot to take a snap so I'll have to show you that one another time.

Are you tempted to try franken polishes?

Keep up to date with all things flutter and sparkle in any of the following ways -

30 Dec 2012

Not the most eloquent of titles, I know, but it does what it says on the tin. I've been very poorly since Boxing Day, so sorry if it seems a bit late to still be talking Christmas presents, but I'm only now just starting to feel human again. The boyfriend started coming down with something on Christmas Eve and I started to get the same thing on Chistmas Day. Luckily we were well enough to have our Christmas dinner and didn't start to feel really poorly until the evening. Since then we've been hibernating at home with lots of tissues and Lemsips (bleurgh). Looking at Twitter it seems lots of people have had a very similar thing :(

While I've been poorly I've managed to watch all three series of Downton Abbey which I'd been meaning to try for ages as lots of people told me it was good. I really liked it and devoured all of the episodes on my Kindle in just three days. Aside from that I've been reading lots of blogs and so many people have been showing what they got for Christmas, so I thought I'd just grab a few snaps and do the same.

I loved everything I got! I think my favourites are my new palettes, the nail polishes, the candles, the diary (for blogging) and my Kindle, oh and the cookbooks. I have so many amazing new toys to play with :) Oh and if you're wondering what the red / clear spaceship pod thingie is, it's a cupcake carrier!

I hope you got great presents too and had a lovely Christmas. And if you were poorly like me, I hope you're feeling better.

Did you get any of the same presents as me?

Keep up to date with all things flutter and sparkle in any of the following ways -

27 Dec 2012

I've been wanting to share my favourite winter lip shades with you for a while, but I actually managed to lose one of them out of my handbag (Kate Moss 107) and I had a hard time replacing it as it was sold out in every Boots and Superdrug I tried. Finally asos came to the rescue with their brilliant free delivery, and I can now show you all of my current favourite shades.

Okay, clearly this has no 'shade' but I had to include it because I've been using it non-stop since I bought it. It was one of those accidental purchases - I was out and about and reached into my bag for some lip balm and realised I didn't have any with me, so I dived into Boots and this little tin looked the most appealing. It's a really thick and creamy sort of balm that leaves a milky look to the lips. I like it because it's instantly comforting and banishes that tight and dry feeling lips can get in cold weather.

My most reached for winter lip colours are mainly reds, but it's nice to have a paler shade in a warm colour for those days when I can't be bothered to get a lip brush out or be checking for lipstick on my teeth. The creamy warm pink shade is so easy to wear, so it's perfect for when I'm being lazy or don't want to make such a statement with my lips. I find it hard to believe that this is my first Topshop lipstick - I was sure I had one or two already, but I think they must have just been on a wishlist and didn't make it to actual purchases. I'm definitely going to check out some of the other shades as I really like the formula of this one.

I've developed a bit of a love for these Just bitten kissable balm stains (longest name ever, so I prefer to call them Revlon Chubbies) and I think I now own 5 of the shades. I'd probably buy the full set if I liked the rest of the colours because these are so easy to apply and wear so well. I guess the clue is in the name - it says it's a stain - but I'm always suprised to look in the mirror and see these are still on my lips. Honey isn't quite the mid-pink shade I expected when I originally bought this in the summer - it's darker than I expected and it's become a bit of a 'my lips but better' winter shade for me.

It's funny how the different seasons can change your opinion on a product. When these lip butters first came out in the Spring I was all over the pink and nude shades and didn't give the deeper hues a second look. Once Autumn came around I just couldn't stop myself from snapping up the colours from the other end of the spectrum and raspberry pie is my firm favourite. I own loads of lip butters now, they're just so creamy and moisturising to apply and you don't have to take quite as much care as with a proper lipstick, although the darker the shade the more relevant this becomes. Raspberry pie is a bright but deep red that goes on quite sheer. It's really wearable on me and it makes my teeth look a bit brighter and whiter too.

Another Revlon chubby, so I won't go on again, other than to tell you what I like about the shade. Crush is my only deep hued Revlon JBK, and it applies just as well as all the rest. I'm no expert at applying a red lip, so using something like this gives me a bit more confidence to go for it as they're so easy to use. My top tip for applying a dark colour is to make sure you stay inside your natural lip line. Once I've gone over it, I'm in a mess. I'd be useless at trying those tricks to make your lips look bigger by drawing around the outside and all that - if I go about messing with my natural lip line I end up with a very wonky looking result!

And last but not least, possibly the most blogged about lipstick of the season, it's the Kate Moss 107. Another lovely deep shade which doesn't make my teeth look stained. I was worried this would be super drying and would make my lips look all scaly because it's a matte lipstick, but actually with a bit of balm underneath it's fine and I forget I'm wearing a matte at all. You can tell I must love this one as I re-bought it after losing my first tube! I was a little bit afraid of wearing this at first as it was the darkest shade I'd owned for a long time, so I just built up to it with some of my other winter reds first. I feel like it's not just me that had to get used to deep red lips, but people who see me too - I don't like to give anyone a shock! Building up to a really deep lip shade gradually meant nobody at work even batted an eyelid when I wore a dark purple lipstick the other day! More about that one in another post.

And finally a few slightly dodgy pics to show you what these look like on. It's funny, I thought Kate Moss 107 was the darkest of this collection, but looking at the lip swatches together it's actually Crush.

Do you like any of my picks? Which is your favourite winter lip colour?

Keep up to date with all things flutter and sparkle in any of the following ways -

24 Dec 2012

Happy Christmas eve! Before all the turkey eating and what-not tomorrow I thought I'd get in a quick little updates with what I've been up to in the run up to Christmas.

I got rather worried when people were on about deleting their Instagram accounts this week - what would I do every morning when avoiding getting up if my Instagram feed was empty?! I really doubt Instagram could have made any money from my photos, so I wasn't bothered - I'm not a Kardashian or anything - but lots of people seemed to be planning to leave the app. They've updated the terms now and we're all friends again, thank goodness. My life would be even duller without seeing what everyone else is having for dinner / the cute things people's pets do / endless pictures of toes peeping out the bath... :)

Let's start with the best bit, the food!

Krispy Kreme tree | Christmas tree cupcake I made

Nutella hot chocs | Awesome breakfast - piggies in blankies!

Byron triple cheesemas | Starbucks time

Santa cupcake I made | A better attempt at Christmas trees

Hazelnut Baileys | More cakes

My fave onesie | Blinging it up with these lashes

My brother was at Disney Christmas. Jel. | Loved this in Urban Outfitters

Tried at home gel nails | The finished result

Studded nails | Christmas nails

The start of the endless gift wrapping | Relaxing with a Neom bath

Christmas candles | Decorating the tree

The Christmas plant! | Wonderful table presents my bestie made

Early Christmas fun and gift giving | Love this card

So pleased with how this baking gift I put together for my brother's girlfriend turned out

Urban Decay haul | Origins baubles

Amazing glitters frankens | Swatching glitters

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow, I'm taking a day off from blogging and on Boxing Day I'm hitting up the sales. See you on the other side!

Happy Christmas xxx

Keep up to date with all things flutter and sparkle in any of the following ways -